16 Reasons

He stood atop a branch, staring intently at the white-haired child using the prowess of his golden eye. He subsequently vanished after meeting the eyes of an Uchiha, gritting his teeth for he can no longer observe and play if his identity would be revealed in an inconvenient time.

Appearing in a black void of mass space, he was greeted with an annoying tone, "Gee-sama~ you're back! I was getting bored waiting for you." He only nodded at the man behind the white mask that is resting on a bed. Xavier was his name, if he remembered it correctly. "Were you snooping around Konoha again? You're the one who said it was risky." The masked man told him, as if scolding a child.

Well, he is in his child body.

"Of course it'd be risky if it was an idiot… just like you." He spoke with nobility, glancing around the dark void, assessing something. "I never made such a scene when I was out there, unlike you who actually almost got yourself killed by two children."

"Ah—you know where to put salt on one's mood, eh?" Xavier shook his head, tone rapidly becoming serious as he spoke of his next words, "But that child… you sure do know lots about him, and both of you share..." he trailed off.

The child paused, knowing what Xavier had meant, before continuing creating a screen in front of the two of them, which showed several perspectives of several people making contact with the white-haired child. Some are blurry, some are clear as a glass. "Why wouldn't we?" He smiled as he stared at the view, leaving unspoken words for the masked man to wonder.

He pulled up his black mask, hiding his features. "In two months' time, we will take him back…" He trailed for dramatic effects, continuing with such poison in his tone, "… dead or alive."

Xavier narrowed his eyes.

__________

I shivered for a moment, making me hug myself in discomfort. Whoever's talking ill about me right now should quit their bullshit—it's very improper. With that, the people inside my hospital room, which had been turned into a meeting room with them (Shikaku-sama, the scarecrow, the crow, tou-san, and a few people from Cipher Unit), abruptly looked at me with their brows raised.

"What's wrong, Ori-kun? Is something the matter?" Kakashi asked, taking his eyes off of the piece of paper he had brought to me for a quick moment. I shook my head, casually taking the paper in his hands. "You see," I started, tucking the stray lock of hair that fell between my eyes behind my ears, "I've heard this before."

Kakashi blinked, "Huh?"

I turned to Shisui-niisan, "We both heard this before, Niisan, before we got attacked by that masked man, which is probably the Xavier uncle and Shikaku-sama is talking about."

"Ah, that?" He asked, I nodded. "So that's how it's written in notes?" He asked, peaking at the paper.

"Mhm." I said, and started humming the notes written on the paper.

"Yes! That's what played before Xavier, dubbed Shiro, attacked." Shisui confirmed.

Shikaku-sama coughed, "So? Does it contain a code or something?" He asked.

"Sure?" I shrugged, and the people in the room looked rather disappointed. Sighing, I placed the paper on my lap and smiled at them, "Get me a piano or something—I'll translate it for you."

Well, with that, they became somewhat eager and hurriedly sent someone to get me a piano.

"Oh?" Tou-san mused, sitting on the end of my bed, "Since when did little Orion learn to play an instrument?" I shrugged at his question.

Shisui narrowed his eyes at the corner my eyes, making me forcibly create an answer, "Well, I've been reading books… and self-studying using paper-drawn piano…" Actually, that wasn't really a lie. I was a natural since my last life and only polished my skills even further when my mother had seen me practicing on a drawn-piano in an illustration board.

A smile flashed onto my face… then a loud crash consequently wiped it away.

"Do you all honestly need to use the window as a door?" I muttered as they placed the piano on the bed. I sighed, prepping the piano as I eyed them, "Well, first, and explanation is needed on how I could read the code…" and it's rather creepy (left that unspoken for now), "Solfa Cipher; Solfa Code, whatever you call it, the letters D, R, M, F, S, L, and T refer to the seven diatonic scale degrees , Do, Re, Mi, etc.. The numbers refer to one of four possible count placements based on a unit duration, like an 8th note…" I stopped as I realised that some of them weren't following.

Flipping the paper to have a blank space, I drew the diatonic scale, naming them orderly and giving them placements.

"For example, Mi2, that one will definitely be translated to A—if we disregard any decoy keys. The position of the notes on the staff will be the same with the decoy, but by selecting a different clef and key signature they will be interpreted as the wrong scale degrees. Selecting a decoy time signature can also help hide the basic rhythmic unit.

The Solfa Key displays bar lines to indicate when the first note of the tune does not start on a downbeat, like, if it's not 1. Thus, changing the placement of the first bar line in the decoy would also confound decryption. The original Solfa Key will be needed to decipher the melodic message and should be passed on separately from the encrypted melody.

If your recipient has a good ear, you could play the melody to pass on the message, which I'll be demonstrating using the piano."

Well, seeing that only a few followed, I'll be definitely lost in explaining this. They'll just have to bear with me until I show them the code.

"To extract the solfa cipher from an encrypted melody, you must determine the scale degrees and unit placement for each note based on the original Key." I then drew the cipher grid beneath the diatonic scale.

Under the Do's from one to four are the letters T, K, R, F; under Re and Ra are I, Z, C, Y; under Mi and Me are A, X, H, G; under Fa and Fi are S, QØ, M, P; under So's are E, J, D, W; under La and Le are N, Å, L, B; and lastly, under Ti and Te are O, Æ, U, V.

I then stopped, realising my mistake as soon as I felt people looking curiously at me. I unintentionally wrote everything in the English Alphabet. In. Freaking. English. Well, no matter. No one's questioning it so I will continue. Turning on the piano, I turned the paper over and started following the notes as I play, adding a beat to it as it was dull the first time.

"Ah—" Shisui rose from his seat, pointing accusingly at the piano, "that's…! That's exactly what we've…!"

"Mhm." I knew it.

""A, E—no, L, L…"" I started mumbling, stopping as I wrote scribbles onto the space left on the paper. The contents confused the others, but I continued writing anyways. I've tried my best sharing them what I know, but I lack the actual composure to teach them.

I'm no teacher after all.

Mi2 La4 La4 Mi2 Ti3 Fa1 So4 Re4 Fa2 La2 Ti4 Fa4 | Do2 Mi2 So3 Fa3 Ti1 Fa4 Fa1 So4 Do4 So4 So2 Do4 Mi2 Mi2 So1 So1 Ti4 Do2 Mi2 So3 So3 Mi2 Re4 Do4 So1 Do3 So3 Re3 Mi2 Mi4 Fa3 Do1 Mi2 La4 La2 So4 | Do2 Mi2 So3 La3 La2 Mi2 Re3 Do4 Do3 So3 Re3 Mi2 Mi4 Fa3 La1 So4 So4 La3 Do1 Ti2 Do1 Mi1 Ti4 Do4 Do4 So4…

Those are what I've written on the paper.

"You actually doing it makes great sense now. Your… big words couldn't… I couldn't catch up with them." Tou-san chuckled, ruffling my hair as he eyed what I've written.

'Lies.' I rolled my eyes as I started reading the actual code, ignoring a few decoys I purposely left out from writing, ""All hope is lost; the puppeteer had won. The white key has fallen; the black key has been forgotten.""

Silence rang inside the room. No one dared to let out a single noise as they froze over after hearing the contents of the code—well, until I broke the silence. I'm someone's bastard nephew, after all. "Well, 'All hope is lost; the puppeteer had won. The white key has fallen; the black key has been forgotten,' is what's written on there," I repeated in Japanese, eyeing the others, "but I'm sure y'all know that already."

"Analysing that now, is Xavier talking about the man behind this brewing mess? The puppeteer, I mean." Kakashi spoke up, looking at Shikaku-sama who's writing down everything he had heard.

"Probably." Shisui nodded, "He kept referring to someone as 'Gee-sama' or something when he fought with the both of us, well, Orion, mainly." He eyed me after feeling my worry, reassuring me that he won't say a single word about what he had learned… yet. It's not like I don't trust him… but I trust him on this that he'll keep it between the two of us.

"I thought things would stop when Xavier had killed his own father but it seems like…" Shikaku-sama brought down his clipboard, eyes narrowing, "that was just the beginning."

"I agree in that case so," tou-san stood up from his seat, walking over towards the window, "it's possible that they have a specific target and are just distracting the police with other issues, and of course, you, people with high positions," he emphasised his words as he eyes Shikaku-sama, "to get to their goal."

Shisui immediately looked at me, and I looked back with the look asking him, 'I'm the target, aren't I?'

He subtly looked away, his looks telling me he's blaming himself for not realising sooner.

"That does make perfect sense," the Nara head nodded, walking over to tou-san, "but who is that target you're speaking of?"

"Hah." Tou-san laughed, eyeing me and Shisui-miisan with amusement. Don't get me wrong, but this father of mine is as sharp as he could be, "Seeing my son's reaction just now, I definitely know who it is."

"And that is?" The scarecrow asked the black deer, looking at him with curiosity, "You don't say it's—"

"It's Shisui." Okay, I take back what I've said. Tou-san isn't that sharp. After a sigh tou-san chuckled, "I'm messing with you, okay? It's obvious by now that their target is my son. Reason? I don't know."

The Nara head pinched the bridge of his nose, swatting tou-san's head. "Kuro." His tone was full of warnings, "Be serious on this case, dammit."

"Ow—" Tou-san shielded his head, before his face turned very, very serious. "Why it's you, Orion?" He eyed me sternly, "Well, why on earth would the one who started everything specifically direct an attack on you? Why would he sought you out, of all people?"

The room fell in silence.

I looked down on the piano, distracting myself from them. It's true. I'm their target, whoever Xavier is with.

In different perspective though, such as mine, it seems like he's trying to warn me… help me figure out things that people here couldn't. Sure, he's crazy, but I felt sympathy in that man—sadness, even. The pity look in his eyes when he realised that I could've called someone to help us sooner but didn't sure etched in the back of my head.

He's the good guy here. He's trying to help me, help Konoha. He didn't just kill Klavier just because he could. He did it to sneak out his message from his mask… to relay it to me. I may be thinking out of the box but… it makes sense in my head.

Just what on earth happened to my once peaceful life here in Konoha?

__________

Shikakuro let out a sigh, looking out the window in the Hokage's Office, thinking about the recent events. He never really knew why people would target out his son, his one and only son, of all people. Sure, he knew Orion is very gifted, special in fact—learning and picking up on things quicker than any kid, suddenly speaking fluent ninja language in front of people, and a bunch of other things—but none of that would draw out an enemy.

From the sound of it, the 'Gee-sama' guy doesn't have anything to do with recent enemies—Orochimaru and the like. It could very well be a new person, someone they've never heard or seen of. Maybe one of his enemies? It could be since in the battlefields years ago, he had accumulated many enemies, though he doesn't quite remember some well. He is Konoha's—

"Why would someone target your son, Kuro-kun?" The Third asked him. He shrugged, "That's what I would like to know too—why people would dare to target my son."

Kakashi shared a look at Shisui, who's behind his crow mask at the moment before he hand signalled the Hokage to activate the seals he kept inside and outside to prevent information leak. The Hokage did it with no hesitation, going to the lengths of letting his person ANBU's to go out for a moment.

"You both seem to know something." The Hokage inclined, propping his elbows on his desk before placing his chin on the back of his hands, "Care to enlighten us?"

Kakashi hesitated for a moment, but since he had started it, there's really no going back. "Is there… any records for… a golden-eye dōjutsu?"

"Pardon?" The Hokage pulled his head back, tilting his head while Shikakuro remained silent.

"A dōjutsu that is golden in colour and… it gives off a chilling yet warm aura…" Shisui remembered back when Orion stared at him, his Sharingan wavering.

Kuro narrowed his eyes, "You're not implying that my child possess whatever the both of you are talking about?"

"Exactly that." Kakashi folded his arms, "Hatake's and Nara's do not have any dōjutsu, as far as I know."

Shikakuro nodded, stepping away near the window and next to the Hokage, "So, I'm assuming that the both of you have seen it?"

"You don't know about it, Kuro-kun?" The Hokage looked at him with his brows raised. The said man shook his head, "Uh, no… not until today."

"To answer your question, Kuro-niisan," Kakashi spoke up, "yes, we have."

"I'm sure it's as mysterious as it can be, Hokage-sama, Kuro-sama." The crow told them, "Even my Sharingan faltered upon seeing his golden eye."

The Hokage seemed to be curious, "Really, now? A dōjutsu that is potentially more dangerous than your clan's Sharingan?"

"You said eye, right?" Shikakuro pointed out.

Shisui blinked, "Uh, yes, Kuro-sama."

The Nara sighed, placing his hand on the Hokage's desk, "I don't know how they knew about Orion's eye, but when Kakashi told me how Xavier had reacted when he saw 'something', before you revealed the eye Orion possesses, made it clear to me." He paused, gritting his teeth. "Now we know why they're after my son."